Friday, 18 May 2012

Beat the reaper

The international media leapt on a study which found a lower rate of mortality amongst coffee drinkers today. Is it true? I don't know, but I appreciated this mild correction at the bottom of the LA Times' report.

[For the Record, 1:13 p.m. PDT May 17: The headline on an earlier version of this post said, "A study that tracked health and coffee consumption finds that coffee-drinkers had a lower risk of death." The headline has been rewritten to note that the finding concerned rates of death only during the time of the study.]

It may seem pedantic, but I wish journalists would stop writing about a 'lower risk of death' when reporting on epidemiological studies. What they mean is that the intervention group is likely to live longer, which is not only a more accurate description but is also a more useful explanation of the findings.

The findings themselves may still be nonsense—as very many epidemiological findings are—but there are enough people indulging themselves in an eternal life fantasy without encouraging them with silly headlines.

About Me

Writer and researcher at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Blogging in a personal capacity.
Author of Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism (2015), The Art of Suppression (2011), The Spirit Level Delusion (2010) and Velvet Glove, Iron Fist (2009).

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."